6 best practices for making employee onboarding easier

The first day on a new job is always stressful. Employers can make it easier on new recruits by providing them with the tools they need to get up to speed quickly and feel like a member of the team from the moment they walk in the door. Here are six best practices for employee onboarding that help communicate your company culture:

1. Extend a warm welcome

You can help new recruits feel like they have made the right choice by sending them a welcome package even before their first day. A note signed by the CEO or the employee’s supervisor along with some company swag is always a good idea. Fuzzco designed some really cool employee welcome kits for MailChimp; check them out here.

2. Give a history lesson

What’s your company story? Here at Suttle-Straus we took it literally and published a book that details where the company started over 100 years ago to where we are today. Make sure your employees know how the company began and the important struggles and wins leading up to its present.

3. Promote core values

If you’ve defined your company’s core values, they need to be infused into employees’ everyday lives. Companies like Epic Specialty Benefits have created values cards for each employee to remind them to hold these attributes in high regard.

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4. Don’t let them get lost

A map can be really helpful for an employee who has relocated across the country, or even one from across town. Help Scout provides each new employee with a map noting great coffee and lunch spots nearby — see their list of other best practices for employee onboarding. If your office campus is huge, a map with offices and conference rooms labeled is useful until an employee gets to know his or her way around.

5. Help with information overload

On your first day at a new job you meet tons of people and by the end of the day you won’t remember any of their names. An employee board posted in frequented hallways can act like a cheat sheet for remembering co-workers’ names.

6. Share inside jokes

Adweek featured Texas agency McGarrah Jessee’s set of playing cards that help new employees learn the ropes. Some of the items on the cards were quirky facts and stories that you would never find in a corporate HR orientation training.

Are you starting your employees off on the right foot or leaving them empty-handed?

Maeghan Nicholson is the marketing manager at Suttle-Straus.

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